Prof. Aric Rindfleisch
MM will hold a Public Webinar on the topic “The Emergence and Effect of Customer Orientation in Digital Sharing Platforms” on 10 June 2021.
Abstract:
The concept of customer orientation has served as a key foundation for marketing thought and practice for over three decades. This concept assumes that market transactions largely occur between firms and customers. However, the advent of the digital revolution has enabled new types of exchange within peer-sharing platforms that do not fit neatly within this model. Thus, the relevance of customer orientation for these new digital platforms is uncertain. Our research investigates this issue by conducting a multi-method examination of the emergence and effect of customer orientation among contributors to digital sharing platforms. Our first study employs depth interviews among 15 contributors who share digital product creations in an online platform, while our second study combines a survey among 189 contributors along with archival data of the performance of their offerings. The results suggest that the nature of customer orientation and the manner in which it emerges are considerably different in digital sharing platforms compared to traditional market transactions. In particular, our research reveals that customer orientation can emerge organically without conventional customers or firms and that it is positively related to market performance.
